Canadian Solar Inc. (NASDAQ:CSIQ), one of the world’s largest solar power companies, announced the appointment of Jianyi Zhang as Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer of the Company. Most recently, Mr. Zhang served, consecutively, as senior advisor to Chinese law firms of Jingtian & Gongcheng Law Firm, Runbo Law Firm, East Associates Law Firm and East & Concord Partners in Beijing. Before that, Mr. Zhang held a senior assistant general counsel position at Walmart Stores, Inc.. Prior to joining Walmart Stores Inc., Mr. Zhang worked for Troutman Sanders LLP as a partner. Mr. Zhang received his B.A. degree and M.A. degree from the University of Helsinki, Finland and his J.D. degree from Washington University School of Law in St. Louis, USA.

Dr. Shawn Qu, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Canadian Solar commented, “I am delighted to welcome Jianyi to the Canadian Solar team. Jianyi brings to us deep legal expertise and a breadth of experience with prominent international companies.” (Original Source)

Shares of Canadian Solar closed yesterday at $18.92, up $0.74 or 4.07%. CSIQ has a 1-year high of $40.08 and a 1-year low of $14.16. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $19.45 and its 200-day moving average is $21.48.

On the ratings front, Canadian Solar has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. In a report issued on April 4, Barclays analyst Jon Windham initiated coverage with a Buy rating on CSIQ and a price target of $24, which implies an upside of 26.8% from current levels. Separately, on March 29, Stifel Nicolaus’ Sven Eenmaa reiterated a Buy rating on the stock and has a price target of $28.

According to TipRanks.com, which ranks over 7,500 financial analysts and bloggers to gauge the performance of their past recommendations, Jon Windham and Sven Eenmaa have a total average return of -6.2% and -2.0% respectively. Windham has a success rate of 47.4% and is ranked #3214 out of 3827 analysts, while Eenmaa has a success rate of 46.2% and is ranked #2733.

The street is mostly Bullish on CSIQ stock. Out of 8 analysts who cover the stock, 8 suggest a Buy rating . The 12-month average price target assigned to the stock is $40.50, which implies an upside of 114.1% from current levels.